Sunday, October 20, 2013

Project 2nd Chance

These are four of the five kids in Project 2nd Chance. This project is one to get school drop-outs back in to a special school in Arad that has a program to allow them back to school. The area in Vinga where I have the church, Seedtime and Harvest, is very poor and many children drop out of school. There is no work for them so they "hang out", many becoming parents at a very young age. Children having children.

We have tried to talk to the parents about encouraging their children to stay in school but many of the poorer Romii people do not see an advantage to education past the most rudimentary reading and writing. Most of the men work "black", under the table - of those who work at all. Stealing is still an acceptable way of producing income. The cycle just keeps on repeating itself.

After camp this last summer Bogdan has worked with many of the teens encouraging them to go back to school, have a future, dream dreams....This month Bogdan was able to get 5 teens registered and started. Getting them registered was a huge hurdle - they are not exactly welcomed. Bogdan went to meetings, made phone calls, pleaded their causes for them to have a 2nd. chance. It is a real battle to keep them in school now. Since there is no reliable transportation in to Arad, especially for the girls, Bogdan picks them up every morning and takes them to school. The other kids have sandwiches and snacks - our kids do not so Bogdan makes them sandwiches. He stays at the school most times, and he goes over their assignments. Now we have added another girl to the program, unfortunately she goes to school in the afternoons but Bogdan is committed to getting her there. Keeping fuel in his car and keeping it repaired has been a real challenge to me.

Please pray for these teens! Again we are hearing "why do you bother - they're Gypsies" etc. etc. Pray for Bogdan not to become discouraged. The Lord is working in Vinga and this is part of it.